My Jewish Masculinity is not Disposable

By Amram Altzman December 29, 2014

My egalitarianism started out as a compromise: it gave me most of the traditional liturgy and observance I’d grown up around, while also giving me the modernity and progressive attitudes I’d been surrounded by for most of my life. It allowed me to cling to the tradition of my childhood and the feminism and liberalism…

Read More...

The Israeli Government Isn’t Pinkwashing — We Are

By Amram Altzman June 18, 2014

The idea of “pinkwashing” is not new. The concept is defined as such: the Israeli government, having to deal with the violation of human rights in the Occupied Territories, uses its record on LGBTQ inclusion (for example, its military has never had a Don’t Ask; Don’t Tell policy, unlike some countries we know) to obscure…

Read More...

Toward a Queerer, Jewier Tomorrow

By Amram Altzman March 31, 2014

When I was in high school, I had this fantasy where I told myself that I would come out of the closet as soon as I got that one text from a friend asking if they could tell me something, and then they would tell me that they are gay. That fantasy was never realized….

Read More...

On the Queer-Jewish-Teenager Experience (or, Corollary to Last Week’s Article)

By Amram Altzman November 25, 2013

I wrote last week about how I grew up in the Modern Orthodox world, but now feel that, in terms of practice, I identify as part of the vast, grey area between Modern Orthodoxy and Traditional Conservatism, and how I, along with peers from both my religious right and left, can build upon that vast,…

Read More...

It Gets Better: Sukkot Edition

By bspringer September 30, 2010

As I sat down to write today’s post, I had intended to write on The Social Network and two excellent blog posts from Marc Tracy and Danielle Berrin on the new movie about Facebook creator, super-Jew and world’s youngest billionaire Mark Zuckerberg. But I couldn’t bring myself to do it. There was something far heavier…

Read More...